That's my point. They had the LDS lined up in pairs - 1 AL with 1 NL. If they'd matched up the 2 AL and the 2 NL, the Tigers and Yanks would have finished yesterday, the Giants and Nats/Cards would be done today, and everyone would have one day off before the LCS, with the exact same schedule layout.

Right, but would you not have ******* if the O's had had to fly back from Arlington and play the next day? That's a guaranteed mess - as opposed to this, which only happens if the series goes 5, so they gave the WC team the travel day and were probably hoping this wouldn't come up. Nothing about the WC/LDS schedule was ideal this yearl, but given all the factors in play, I'm not sure there was much else to be done.

I'm not sure it could have been more poorly managed. Everything about this year's playoff schedule has been a clusterfuck, and for what? So the season can end on an arbitrary day instead of a coupla days later, and so TBS can show a game on a Thursday inteadof a Friday or whatever? That's worth the teams with the shittiest records hosting the first two games of best-of-five series? It's worth some teams getting more rest than others after playing the same number of games in the previous playoff series? What kind of retarded logic is that?

I'm not talking about what they "should" have done, I'm just looking at the actual realities in play once they decided to implement the new system this year. Yes, ideally, you tell your TV partners to go pound sand if they complain about you messing up their schedule, but when they are paying hundreds of millions of dollars a year for the broadcast rights, in reality, that doesn't happen.

What should have happened was that they either decided on before they put together the 2012 schedule, or they should have waited until 2013. Once they decided to put it in this year, the first round schedule was going to be a mess.

Posted by AlCheez on 10/12/2012 9:00:00 PM (view original):Right, but would you not have ******* if the O's had had to fly back from Arlington and play the next day? That's a guaranteed mess - as opposed to this, which only happens if the series goes 5, so they gave the WC team the travel day and were probably hoping this wouldn't come up. Nothing about the WC/LDS schedule was ideal this yearl, but given all the factors in play, I'm not sure there was much else to be done.

No, I wouldn't have been ******. That would have meant 3 games, off day, 3 games. The Yankees (though I don't care much about them) now have games on 5 consecutive days in the playoffs. While the Tigers get to stay with their 4 starters, the Yanks now have to throw Nova or Phelps which is a huge advantage for the Tigers.

Honestly, I think that's BS on your part, but since we'll obviously never know, whatever.

Like I said, they avoided the guaranteed issue of no travel day after the AL WC game and hoped it would work out on the back-end with a shorter series, and it didn't. I'm sure the fact that they had the 2-3 set up factored in, because they probably didn't want to compound the fact that the #1 seed would have to open on the road by making them do it without a travel day.

Posted by AlCheez on 10/12/2012 9:51:00 PM (view original):Honestly, I think that's BS on your part, but since we'll obviously never know, whatever.

Like I said, they avoided the guaranteed issue of no travel day after the AL WC game and hoped it would work out on the back-end with a shorter series, and it didn't. I'm sure the fact that they had the 2-3 set up factored in, because they probably didn't want to compound the fact that the #1 seed would have to open on the road by making them do it without a travel day.

Depends how you look at it. I'm trying to be objective. Honestly, I think the O's are the only team that would have benefited from playing 5 straight days because they had a rested Tillman in the wings - they have five 2-3 starters, so there's not the significant drop-off you get with other teams.

But after the O's beat the Rangers, no, I wouldn't have cared about a day off.

First time since '96 that four 100+ year old franchises are in the final four. Some potentially historical WS matchups.

The Cards and Tigers have met 3 times in the WS, with the Cards holding a 2-1 lead. Cards hold a 3-2 advantage over the Yanks in WS matchups. Yanks are thrashing the Giants 5-2 in the WS. And oddly enough, despite being around forever, the Tigers and Giants have never met in a WS.

Posted by AlCheez on 10/12/2012 9:51:00 PM (view original):Honestly, I think that's BS on your part, but since we'll obviously never know, whatever.

Like I said, they avoided the guaranteed issue of no travel day after the AL WC game and hoped it would work out on the back-end with a shorter series, and it didn't. I'm sure the fact that they had the 2-3 set up factored in, because they probably didn't want to compound the fact that the #1 seed would have to open on the road by making them do it without a travel day.

Depends how you look at it. I'm trying to be objective. Honestly, I think the O's are the only team that would have benefited from playing 5 straight days because they had a rested Tillman in the wings - they have five 2-3 starters, so there's not the significant drop-off you get with other teams.

But after the O's beat the Rangers, no, I wouldn't have cared about a day off.

Like I said, whatever. I don't give you much benefit of the doubt on your ability to be objective in the moment, as opposed to now after this didn't happen and the O's are out, but there's nothing but conjecture at this point.

Also, like I said after I thought about it more, the bigger issue with no day off after the AL WC game is the #1 seed, who is already opening on the road despite being the higher seed having to do so without a travel day. Not the biggest deal since it wound up being Baltimore, but if they had had to go to, say Oakland or Texas on less than 24 hours notice, that's rough, and you don't get hindsight in making that schedule. I would agree that due to the pitching issues, this is probably worse for their overall chances, but there was also a possibility that this wouldn't happen.